Improvement in shoes



J. L. GROSS.

Shoes.

No. 214,371. Patented April 15, I879.

N-PETERS, PHOTOLITHQGRAPHER. WASHIN ions, 1) b, arranged in respect to each other UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIoE.

JOHN L. GROSS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF HIS RIGHT TO HERBERT W. RICHARDSON, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN SHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 214,371, dated April 15, 1879; application filed November 11, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN L. Gaoss, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Shoes, and in the mode of making the same, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to make a cheap, neat, and comfortable gaiter without instep-seams or supplementary heel counter or stiffener, and with a rigid toe piece or protector, and this object I attain by combining an upper-body, comprising two portions, with an incision at the back, with a heel-piece and toe-piece, the edges of the incision being secured to the edges of the heel-piece and the front edges of the upper to the edges of the toe-piece, all as described hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawings, Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 are views of the pieces employed in making a buttoned gaiter according tomy invention; Fig. 5, a view showing the relation in which the parts are fitted to each other 5 and Fig. 6, a view of the finished gaiter.

From a piece of ordinary calf-skin, kid, or morocco is out a blank of the form shown in Fig. 1. This blank, although of one piece, may be said to comprise three partsname1y, the halves or portions A A for forming the vamp and quarter, or, in other words, the body of the upper of the gaiter, and the projecting portion B, forming part of the half A, and intended to form the overlapping portion of the gaiter, in which the button-holes are made.

Between the portions A and A of the blank, and extending partly through the latter from one edge, is an incision, a, and in the portion B of the blank are formed two curved incisas shown, so as to divide the portion Binto two flaps, d d, and an intervening tongue, 6.

D is a heel-piece, and E a toe-piece, which are preferably cut to, the shape shown, or to some other ornamental shape, these pieces being composed of sole-leather, rawhide, skin, or other material or composition possessing the requisite stifiness.

In making the shoe, the lower portions of the halves A A of the blank, corresponding to the quarter of an ordinary shoe, are first spread apart until the edges 12 t of the incision a will slightly overlap the edges m m of the heel-piece when applied thereto, the overlapping edges being then secnred together by stitching. The projecting portion B of the blank is then folded over on the dotted line 00, Fig. 1, the effect of this operation being to form spaces a between the edges of the flaps d and the edges of the tongue 0. A strip, F, previously cut from material of the same or analogous character as the blank, Fig. 1, is then applied as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, and is stitched to the edges of the flapsd cl and of the tongue 6. The shoe is then lined and trimmed in the usual manner, and the blank then folded on the line 3 Fig. 1, so that the points 8 s on the halves A A or vamp portions of the blank are brought into contact with each other, as in Fig. 5. The front edges,t t, of the halves A A of the blank are then secured to the edges w w of the toe-piece E, which overlap the same, and after moistening the toe and heel pieces the shoe is in condition for being applied to the last, around which the toe and heel pieces are molded, so as to impart the proper shape to the upper prior to the application of the sole and heel thereto, as in Fig. 6.

By the above means I am enabled to make the body of the upper of one piece of leather or other material, thereby dispensing with the usual objectionable seams at the heel and instep, while, owing to the fact that the toe and heel pieces aid materially in forming the upper, the blank, Fig. 1, contains less material than is required in making an upper of a number of pieces, according to the usual plan. Moreover, the toe-pieee E takes the place of the ordinary supplementary tip, and the heelpiece D possesses suficient rigidity to enable me to dispense with the usual counter or heelstiffener.

When a plain laced shoe is to be made the two halves A A of the blank are of the same size and shape, the projection B being dis pensed with.

I am aware that an upper-blank having an incision at the back has been combined with a heel-piece, to the edges of which the edges of the cut portion of the blank were secured; but the heel-piece in this case was not made of material of such a character as to enable the usual counter or llltl'sllfi tlltl' to be lll 1l0ll0d I portions A A to the edges w of the toe-piece, with. all substantially as set forth.

I claim as my invention- In testimony whereof I have signed my The within-deserihed shoeor gniteryinwhieh name to this speeifieation in the presence of an upper-body, comprising two portions. A A, two subserihing witnesses.

and having an ineision, a, is eonibined with n JOHN L. CROSS. heel-piece, I), and toe-pieee I), the edges i of \Yitnesses: the incision a being secured to the edges m of ALEX. PATTERSON,

the heel-piece. and the front edges, f, 0f the HARRY SMITH. 

